A bright sunny day in Uxbridge playing on a ground with a very short boundary on one side which we were more than happy to target.

We lost the toss and were asked to bowl. With a strong bowling line up I knew I had a lot of options so could afford to chop and change. Junior and Ritesh opened the bowling and kept it so tight I gave them 8 and 5 overs respectively. Ritesh was getting a lot of bounce keeping the batsman honest and Junior was bowling to a strong offside field so that they were unable to target the short leg side boundary which he did perfectly and ended up bowling his full quota on the trot for only 19 runs!

The batsmen started to open up in the middle overs and two of their batmen reached 50. Gaurav, Kunal B and Sabs bowled well to restrict them but were unable to get a break through. The fielding was great especially Junior and Biren who were sweeping on the short boundary and put their body on the line. We had 2 good run outs as we put the batsmen under pressure stopping the 1s.

25 overs gone and it was time for the spin kings to take over……MP3 and Tushar bowled well together and pegged back the run rate and forcing the batsmen to play across the line to target the short boundary.

Uxbridge finished on 181 for 4 which we though was gettable if we got off to a good start which we did thanks to Gaurav and some big but sensible stroke play. Biren found the short boundary irresistible and played across the line and was unfortunately bowled. Sandeep joined Gaurav in playing some nice shots until he hit a big 6 and damaged his lucky bat! We on 49 for 1 off about 8 overs and looked like we were in a very strong position but there was a mix up in the running and Gaurav was run out. Sandeep was soon after undone by some extra bounce. The bowlers had their tails up and were bowling a very tight line so Darren and I batted out a few overs to try and calm things down but a juicy half volley from the leg spinner was too much for Darren to resist and played a sweep shot to the longest boundary and was caught on the wire (any other ground it would have been a 6!)

65-4 off 15 Tushar was next in and I knew we had a long way to go so we saw off a few overs to try and bat sensibly and not throw the game away as we were ahead of the rate. Tushar had a bad leg and was unable to take singles so we became a bit bogged down which drew a run out 83-5 off 25. Next in was Ritesh and I knew he was fast between the wickets so we picked up a lot of singles before Rits started to T off and found the boundary. We were up with the run rate and scoring freely and victory was in sight until Rits played across the line and was given LBW.

145-6 In comes Sabs and he played very well and we ran for almost everything to keep up with the run rate. Sabs was unfortunately bowled by a good Yorker and the run rate was up to 10 and over for the last 3 overs. I scored my 50 but was finding it hard to find the boundary. There was then a mix up with their strike bowler bowling more than his quota adding to the drama. We then needed 10 runs off the last over to win and we were running for everything which unfortunately lead to me running out Junior. I was bowled off the next ball and Kunal B came in with the stiff task of 8 runs needed off 3 balls.

We didn’t make it over the wire but it was a great team effort with everyone contributing and playing in the true PPCC manor!....We were louder and more enthusiastic then the opposition and another day we would have beaten them so great sign for the rest of the season!..

P.S I will keep it shorter next time!

Vijay